


diamond

by leejenowo



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Adventure, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Travel, dragon - Freeform, its cute ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 05:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20040748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leejenowo/pseuds/leejenowo
Summary: the tiniest dragon in the world has to guard its treasure, a single gold coin. one day a traveller gets the coin handed to him as change after he buys something at a town's market, and the tiny dragon comes with itprompt number: JZ043





	diamond

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stardustchenle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustchenle/gifts).

> for the jeno zine! i hope everyone likes it (especially la mwah) nyooom!

Jisung travels a lot and it’s something he loves doing. He’s not the kind of person that likes to stay idle for too long and discovering new places gives him the opportunity to move around just enough. For years now, Jisung has been exploring every city and village he comes across on his journey with just his backpack filled with trinkets and memorabilia. He keeps the bare minimum on his road just so he can have enough space to hold on to the random pieces that have been handed to him over the years: a jade elephant, a marble eagle and his newest acquisition.

It’s a small gold coin he got in exchange from selling the old bone pocket knife he carried around with him in case of emergency. It was hard to part with, but he needs all the gold he can get for food and, if he’s lucky enough a shelter. Part of travelling around the world includes living day by day, uncertain of what will happen tomorrow or the day after that. Sometimes, people offer to let him stay over and Jisung can never say no to that. The thought of eating a homemade meal and sleeping in a warm bed is just so overwhelming that there’s no way he would ever refuse. He’s learned with time that he has to watch his possessions each time, though, especially his gold. Most people do not find any value in things like jade and marble because the materials come from faraway kingdoms and they have no knowledge of them, but gold is a completely different story. It’s universal and everyone knows how much it’s worth a lot.

When Jisung first gets offered a bed in the biggest house of the village, he hesitates a bit. Sure, a bath and a good night of rest sound amazing, but he has to leave early the next morning if he wants to make sure he gets to the next village before night falls. Even someone as experienced as Jisung does not want to sleep out in the open during the cold season; the nights are freezing and quite unforgiving. In the end, the pros outweigh the cons and Jisung finally gets to properly rest before starting his journey again.

“Eat as much as you want, Jisung,” his host, Taeil, tells him that night when he’s finally seated for dinner.

He doesn’t need to be told twice and he starts picking at the multiple dishes waiting for him on the table. Everything he gets his hands on end up in his belly in no time, not even touching his plate in the process. Johnny, Taeil’s partner, is looking at him like a dad. He knows that look of pride and amusement because his father used to look at him the same way. It’s something so small, but it makes him feel like he belongs like he’s in a new home away from home. For a moment, Jisung almost wants to stay in this village so he can learn about the habits of the place. That’s one of the downsides of travelling so much: never staying long enough to properly learn about the culture. But he doesn’t want to overstay his welcome at Taeil and Johnny’s house. And he can still feel that tugging at the bottom of his gut, the one that calls for adventure and for the constant need to move.

When Jisung goes to bed that night after putting his new coin under his pillow ― “it’s so you will only have nice dreams”, his mother used to say ― he knows what he has to do in the morning. Going back home will take a while, but it has to be done eventually and after spending time with his hosts today, it’s definitely the right thing to do.

He wakes up the next morning with a dry mouth and the remains of a dream about his parents. He doesn’t usually dream about them because he simply doesn’t miss them. Jisung is one of the luckiest people on this planet. He got to spend his whole childhood moving around from kingdom to kingdom with his parents, exploring every new region with as much enthusiasm as the previous one. He spent years learning about geography, geology and history while every other kid his age was probably learning how to read and write. He eventually got to learn that too, but he also had the opportunity to study languages and dialects by spending time with the locals. At one point, it was just natural for Jisung to break away from his parents and start following his own path. Now, though, he feels like it’s the perfect time to go back home ― or at least the place they used to rest between their travel. Jisung wasn’t really attached to that place but something about the dream he had last night just made him feel like it was the right thing to do. Seeing his parents’ smiling faces over steaming dishes ― something similar to the scene from yesterday with his hosts.

Packing up was quick and everything was where he had left it the night prior ― not that he didn’t trust Johnny and taeil, but he had learned to check his belongings all the time. Reaching under the pillow to grab his gold coin, Jisung feels the bumps of the engraving and cocks his head to the side. Last time he looked at his coin, it was bare of any stamping, so why does he suddenly feel like there’s now something on it?

Upon closer inspection, it does look like something appeared on the coin. One side is still smooth and free of ridges, but the other now has 4 parallel lines as if an animal scratched at it with its claws. But no animal has claws strong enough to leave a mark on gold and Jisung doesn’t carry any object that could leave such deep lines on his new coin.

The whole coin thing completely leaves his mind for the next days after he departs from his last stop. The journey back is long and not everyone is as welcoming as Taeil and Johnny had been so he spends a couple of nights sleeping behind an inn, hoping that no one will notice his presence. But finally ― finally, Jisung tells himself ― he catches a glimpse of the familiar pine and fir lines that surround the little brick house where he was born, but there’s no smoke coming out of the chimney which means that his parents have not been home in a while.

Jisung can’t really hide his disappointment at the fact that his parents are not there to welcome him as Johnny and Taeil had, but it’s not really a surprise to him. He has no way of knowing where his parents currently are or if they’re even still alive after all the time they spent apart, but he’s okay with it. Maybe he won’t be spending time with his parents as he did in his dream, but that’s what dreams are. They’re just a piece of your imagination and, in a way, he knows that coming home to his parents is just too good to be true.

Instead of spending more time being disappointed that his family isn’t there to welcome him back, Jisung decides to tidy up the house seeing as there is a layer of dust on every object lying around the house ― and there’s a lot of objects in their house. He starts by dusting all the bigger surfaces before moving to all the bits and pieces his parents and him brought back from their various adventures. Jisung doesn’t forget to add his elephant and the eagle he acquired on a shelf in their living area.

Jisung finds himself laying on his back, staring at the ceiling of his room. There’s nothing else to do really and the house is so silent, it’s weird for Jisung. He got used to being outside, where there’s always noise around him but now there’s absolutely nothing to distract him except his coin. He throws it in the air, watching it spin as it comes down and catches it before repeating the same thing. Every time he does it, it seems like time slows down around him and he’s watching the piece of metal fall in slow motion. It doesn’t register in his brain that there could be something happening right now, not until he misses the catch and the coin falls flat on his forehead. For a second, Jisung just lays there with the piece of metal sitting on his head. His whole body feels heavy with sleep and it’s only now that he realizes how exhausted he is. The journey back, the cleaning and the simple fact that he hasn’t been home in months, hasn’t slept in his  _ own  _ bed in forever, suddenly hit him full force and he decides that now would be a good time. If his parents aren’t there to welcome him in real life, maybe they’ll be there to welcome him once he’s unconscious.

By habit, Jisung tucks the little coin under his pillow, barely noticing the new engraving. Jisung only remembers thinking how cool dragons are before he closes his eyes, this time for a dreamless sleep.

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Jisung can tell something is different the moment he stirs awake. There’s a weight on his left side and he can feel a hot breath hitting his neck. At first, he thinks someone slipped in bed with him during the night and his whole body goes stiff at the terrifying thought that his house was broken into. He rapidly clears that idea when he analyzes the situation and comes to the conclusion that the foreign body sitting close to his is way too small to be human unless a newborn walked all the way to the middle of the forest and climbed into bed with him. His next supposition is that a stray cat managed to find a way in and took refuge close to a heat source ― him ― to protect itself from the cold season. The thought seems reasonable and, even though Jisung isn’t the biggest fan of cats, he doesn’t really want any animal to suffer. Another hint that it could be a cat is the slight vibration he can feel coming from the small animal, so he reaches to touch its fur and make it aware that he is awake. Sometimes, cats can get anxious around humans and Jisung doesn’t want to scare it away. Instead of meeting soft fur like he expects to, his fingers touch a rough texture, something akin to leather and the feeling makes Jisung jump out of bed quickly.

In his bed, just beside his pillow where he was sleeping minutes before, is a reptile. It’s big, similar to the lizards he has seen in the mountains when he was travelling south, and the simple thought of having slept beside such a thing disgusts him. He wants to bathe and scrub his skin until it’s red just to try to get the feeling of his skin touching the scales out of his mind. Something about the reptile is unusual though and Jisung can’t understand why its scales seem to be reflecting the sun rays like glass or why its neck seems so long and disproportionate compared to the rest of its body or why it has wings on his back and ―

Oh. There’s a dragon. In his bed. 

Jisung is currently watching a dragon yawn and stretch like a cat, its blue eyes fixated on him. He’s not really freaking out and he thinks he should be, but something about the  _ dragon in his bed  _ just makes sense to him. He’s heard about dragons ― and chimera, mermaids, fairies and other mythical creatures, but that’s all they ever were: myths. He never thought for a second that any of those could exist outside of local folklore but here he is, looking right down at an actual dragon. Obviously, it’s smaller than the beasts people have described to him on his multiple trips and maybe that’s why he doesn’t feel so scared when he thinks about touching it.

Carefully, Jisung reaches his hand out to present it to the dragon, much like he would do with a cat or a dog. Do dragons smell people to recognize them? There’s no way for him to know unless he tries it. The little creature lifts its head up, stretching its neck until its head is at the same level as Jisung’s hand. Instead of smelling him ― or worse, biting him ― the dragon presses its head into the palm of his hand and Jisung falls into a maelstrom of colours. 

It’s only for a few seconds, but Jisung is transported through a tunnel of colours and shapes so fast that he doesn’t have time to recognize anything. When he falls back in his own body, there’s one thing that seems stuck in his mind. It’s not something he heard or saw, it’s like a feeling that was imprinted in his memory. It takes him a while to come down from the feeling of it all, but when he does he can remember a name.

He looks at the dragon curiously, “Jeno. Is that your name?”

The dragon nods like a human would and rolls on the bed to present its belly. Jisung only guesses that it is asking for scratches so he reaches out again. Instead of being met with the rough feeling of scales,’s fingers press against a soft and warm belly, similar to an actual cat, just less… furry.

“So,” Jisung starts stroking the little dragon, “are you a boy?”

To Jisung’s surprise, the dragon starts purring and he takes that as a yes. For the next couple of hours, Jisung and the dragon spend time cuddling in bed until the boy’s stomach starts growling in hunger. Before he can even get up, his companion is stretching his little limbs and jumping off the bed and heading straight for the door and literally walking through it like it wasn’t even there in the first place.

Jisung just stares, mouth agape, “he’s a magic dragon…”

It doesn’t take long before Jeno is trotting back in, proudly holding a possum in his mouth. He sits on the floor, his tail curling around him, before dropping his loot on the floor to offer it to Jisung. The boy tries his best to smile at Jeno’s trophy, but the thought of eating a possum instead of chicken or pork makes him grimace. Still, he walks up to the dragon and gives him a little pat on the head to acknowledge his action. He then motions for him to eat it by himself while he preps his own meal.

After eating, Jisung finds himself back in bed already, tired from the events of the day. He didn’t expect to be so drained after only cooking and cuddling in bed with the little creature, but it seems like his earlier trip inside the dragon’s mind took a toll on his body. Surprisingly, though, Jisung realizes that his body doesn’t ache like it did the day before he went to sleep. Usually, the bone-deep feeling of exhaustion would haunt him for a whole week when he was on an adventure break, but this time he miraculously was fine after just one night of rest. The dragon must have great power if he was able to heal Jisung and enter his mind.

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

That night, after softly biding goodnight to his companion, Jisung falls asleep and has another dream. This time, he sees a glass dragon like Jeno, but much bigger in size and accompanied by three other dragons of the same size: a red one, a green one and a white one. Their scales shimmer but it’s not because of the light. There’s something happening, energy flowing between all of them, and even in the dream, Jisung can feel the magic emanating from them. Before he has time to register what is happening, the flow of energy is interrupted by screaming and humans in hunter gear appear, pointing flaming arrows at them. Jisung wants to scream, but no sound comes out of his mouth and he understands that what he’s seeing is actually Jeno’s memory. Jisung feels the first arrow zip through the air right by his head before he wakes up.

Beside him, Jeno is looking up at him with his cerulean eyes. It doesn’t take Jisung a long time to realize that Jeno has grown in size, now taking almost as much space as his old family dog. The dragon opens his mouth and Jisung expects him to yawn like a cat, but instead finds that a little diamond fell on his lap. Without much thought, Jisung picks it up to examine it. The feeling he gets when he touches it is similar to the feeling he had the day before when Jeno put his head in his hand. He finds himself falling in the middle of the same colour storm but this time he manages to slow his breathing down. What used to only be shapes and colours now transform into the dragons he saw in his dream.

Falling back into his own mind, Jisung glances at Jeno, “those other dragons, are they your brothers?”

Jeno nods and, for a moment, Jisung finds himself thinking that he almost looks like a human despite his appearance.

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

It takes Jisung a little bit of time to get used to living with a dragon, especially considering the fact that Jeno keeps getting bigger and bigger after each dream Jisung has. The boy tries everything to get Jeno to sleep outside where he won’t be all cramped up, but still, Jeno refuses to leave Jisung’s side, sleeping on the floor with his head propped unto the bed to still be able to touch him. And even though his annoyance, Jisung knows he’s close to finding out Jeno’s secret (and he also likes the warmth Jeno’s body has to offer ― but there’s no way he would ever admit that). 

So on one night, instead of fighting with Jeno about sending him to sleep outside, Jisung grabs his pillow and his blanket and goes outside by himself. He knows that Jeno will follow him out eventually, just out of curiosity. And just as he guesses, Jeno walks through the door a moment later. He’s now as big as the carriages he saw when he was in one of the wealthy territories in the north. How Jeno has managed to fit inside his house all this time is a complete mystery, although Jisung suspects there’s a little bit of magic at play there.

Jeno understands Jisung’s intention when the boy lays down on the pavement and the dragon instantly curls around him so he won’t get cold during the night.

The dream starts like all the others. Jeno and his dragon brothers are sitting together in their magic circle under the stars. Jisung feels the magic flowing again but there’s something different this time. In front of the four dragons rest a little gold coin and even from the distance, Jisung can tell that they’re the same as the one he got from the merchant weeks ago. A voice then speaks up, but it’s not physical; it speaks directly into Jisung’s mind and Jisung can tell it’s the red dragon speaking.

_ This will take a lot of energy to perform, for all of us. We have been hunted for long enough and it’s time we put a stop to it. When it’s time for us to meet again, faith will bring us back together. Our energy and magic will be stored in these coins until someone frees us. Goodbye brothers and until the moment we are awakened. _

The three dragons repeat the last line in Jisung’s mind and then the most beautiful thing he has ever witness happens. The dragons start shifting between their usual form and a humanoid shape before their energy is sucked into their respective coins by an imperceptible wind. The coins then disappear one by one in a different way: consumed by fire, caught in the wind, sunk into the ground and transformed into a white flower.

When Jisung wakes up from the dream, he can’t feel Jeno’s body curled up around him anymore and he almost panics before he catches the salty smell of the ocean.

“The stars are beautiful here Jisung,” the boy turns his head to meet a human with the same blue eyes he had learned to trust and appreciate, “I have awakened.”


End file.
